Curry Pot is a traditional Indian restaurant on Riddiford Street in the heart of Newtown, Wellington, serving South Indian cuisine alongside dishes from all corners of the sub-continent. The kitchen is led by chefs born and raised in India, including owner Kishori Lal, Executive Chef Raghubeer Singh and Head Chef Sunil Sati, who together bring more than a decade of experience in traditional Indian cooking — paired, as they put it, with a contemporary Kiwi twist.
The menus showcase authentic ingredients and time-honoured techniques, from sizzling tandoori platters and hearty do pyaza curries to crisp dosas served with sambar and chutney. Regulars single out the Chicken Tikka Masala, the generous dinner-time naans and the lunchtime thali special, and Google reviewers consistently praise the flavour-rich curries and the friendly, welcoming staff.
Beyond the dining room, Curry Pot caters for events large and small — the team has fed around 60 guests at a private home function, arriving with table cloths, bain maries, serving utensils and even staff to serve on the night. Whether you're dropping in for a quick lunch special, a BYO dinner with a big group, or ordering delivery to your door before 9 PM, Curry Pot aims to be, as their site says, 'the place you want to be with your friends'. Note the restaurant is totally closed on Mondays.
On Riddiford Street, in the middle of Wellington's ever-hungry Newtown, Curry Pot has quietly built a following around one simple idea: traditional Indian food, cooked the way the chefs grew up eating it, served with genuine warmth.
The team is led by owner and chef Kishori Lal, with Executive Chef Raghubeer Singh and Head Chef Sunil Sati alongside him. All were born and brought up in India and each has more than ten years of experience in traditional Indian cooking. The menus, as they put it, showcase traditional and authentic ingredients and techniques from all corners of the Indian sub-continent — with their own contemporary twists layered on top.
The cooking leans South Indian, and that's where the kitchen really shines. Google reviewers who know the cuisine well call the sambar excellent and wonderfully spiced, and one recent arrival to New Zealand described the masala dosa as both filling and genuinely tasty, with a tomato chutney good enough to warrant a second helping. Given how rare a proper masala dosa is in this country, that's no small thing.
Start the way many tables do: with Paneer Pakoras — cottage cheese layered with spinach, dipped in a spiced chickpea batter and fried — or Tandoori Mushrooms roasted in the tandoor. Sharing groups should look straight at the Tandoori Platter for Two, a sizzling lineup of chicken tikka, malai tikka, lamb seekh kebab and tandoori prawn.
For mains, the Chicken Tikka Masala is the one regulars name out loud; one office-worker-cum-regular has worked through a handful of the curries and declares it 'so yummy'. The do pyaza curries — chicken, lamb or mushroom — bring that classic onion, ginger and garlic depth, while the Paneer Jalfrezi pairs cottage cheese with coconut cream, capsicum and tomato.
At lunchtime, the Thali Special is the move: the chef's choice of two curries (chicken or vegetarian) with a plain naan, raita, poppadum and rice. Reviewers repeatedly call the lunchtime special awesome, and it's a big part of why nearby workers keep crossing the street.
One more thing worth knowing: at dinner, the naans are famously massive, arriving cut into thirds so you can actually manage them. And keep an eye on the standing offer — buy any two curries and a naan comes free.
Curry Pot also runs a serious catering operation. When one customer needed to feed around sixty guests at a home party, the team visited the venue beforehand, then turned up with table cloths, bain maries, serving spoons and labels for the curries — and two staff stayed on to serve before packing everything down. 'The curries themselves were top notch,' she wrote. 'They always are.'
The dining room handles big groups well too; reviewers mention the team happily accommodating large bookings for BYO dinners.
Find Curry Pot at 88 Riddiford Street, Newtown. Lunch runs Tuesday to Saturday, 11:30am to 2:30pm, and dinner is served every night from 5pm till late — though the restaurant is totally closed on Mondays, so plan your curry cravings accordingly. Ordering in? Delivery is subject to availability, so call 04 389 7575 to confirm before ordering online, and expect your food at the door before 9 PM.
Friendly staff, flavour-rich curries and a lunch special worth setting an alarm for: this is Newtown comfort food with real South Indian soul.